Amos Gitai and Richard Peña discuss West of the Jordan River at the 2018 New York Jewish Film Festival.

Building on work he set forth in Rabin, the Last Day and Shalom Rabin, Amos Gitai returns to the West Bank to better understand the efforts of the citizens, both Israelis and Palestinians, to try to overcome the consequences of the 50-year occupation. Interspersing footage of his interviews with Yitzhak Rabin from the 1990s with the contemporary interviews of everyday citizens, Gitai emphasizes the lasting side effects of Rabin’s assassination on the twenty years since: peace was so close, and now it seems so far. Searching for hope amidst the rubble of the occupied territories, Gitai shows the many local Israelis and Palestinians who have risen to act in the name of civic consciousness and peace. West of the Jordan River is a powerful and moving film from one of our most important filmmakers.

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